Professor Nobert Bolz is a known media scholar in Germany. He has studied the works of Theodor W. Adorno and Walter Benjamin, but is now working within the tradition of Niklas Luhmann. His books and his articles in the German press are usually very controversial and provocative.

If you want to read some very vicious remarks about Habermas's work, you can find it here: Sybille Tönnies's "Des Kaisers neue Kleider - keine Hommage" ("The Emperor's New Clothes - No Hommage"). It is also from Deutschlandsfunk!

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Michael Tomasello has been named the winner of the 2009 Hegel Prize, which is awarded by the German city of Stuttgart. The prize will be awarded to Tomasello at a ceremony on December 16, 2009. Jürgen Habermas will give the Laudatio.

Michael Tomasello is an American developmental psychologist, and since 1998 co-director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. He is educated at Duke University and University of Georgia, and has been professor of psychology at Emory University in Atlanta.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Toward a Humanist JusticeThe Political Philosophy of Susan Moller Okin

Edited by Debra Satz and Rob Reich

Description

The late Susan Moller Okin was a leading political theorist whose scholarship integrated political philosophy and issues of gender, the family, and culture. Okin argued that liberalism, properly understood as a theory opposed to social hierarchies and supportive of individual freedom and equality, provided the tools for criticizing the substantial and systematic inequalities between men and women. Her thought was deeply informed by a feminist view that theories of justice must apply equally to women as men, and she was deeply engaged in showing how many past and present political theories failed to do this. She sought to rehabilitate political theories -particularly that of liberal egalitarianism, in such a way as to accommodate the equality of the sexes, and with an eye toward improving the condition of women and families in a world of massive gender inequalities. In her lifetime Okin was widely respected as a scholar whose engagement went well beyond the world of theory, and her premature death in 2004 was considered by many a major blow to progressive political thought and women's interests around the world.

The volume stems from a conference on Okin in February 2005. See my links to some of the conference papers.

Susan Moller Okin was professor in the political science departement at Stanford University 1990-2004.

PART II: Gender and the Family5: David Miller (Oxford University): Equality of Opportunity and the Family [conference paper]6: Molly Lynn Shanley (Vassar College): "No More Relevance than One's Eye Color": Justice and Okin's Genderless Society7: Cass Sunstein (University of Chicago): On the Tension Between Sex Equality and Religious Freedom

PART III: Feminism and Cultural Diversity8: Ayelet Shachar (University of Toronto): From Liberal to Post-Colonial to Multicultural Feminism: Competing Approaches to the study of Gender, Citizenship and Fate of Religious Arbitration9: Alison Jaggar (University of Colorado at Boulder): Okin and the Challenge of Essentialism10: Chandran Kukathas (London School of Economics): The Dilemma of a Dutiful Daughter: Love and Freedom in the Thought of Kartini [conference paper]

PART IV: Development and Gender11: Robert Keohane (Princeton University): Reinventing Globalization to Reduce Gender Inequality [conference paper]12: Iris Marion Young (University of Chicago): The Gendered Cycle of Vulnerability in the Less Developed

Stefan Müller-Doohm (professor of sociology at Oldenburg University) is also working on a biography on Jürgen Habermas. It has the working title "Jürgen Habermas als Sozialtheoretiker und öffentlicher Intellektueller. Leben, Werkentwicklung und zeitgeschichtlicher Kontext." For more information, click here.

Last year Stefan Müller-Doohm published a short biography "Jürgen Habermas. Leben, Werk, Wirkung" (Suhrkamp Verlag 2008). In 2003 he published an authoritative biography on Theodor W. Adorno.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Ramin Jahanbegloo - an Iranian philosopher, now living in Canada - gave an interview in 2006, in which he evaluated the influence of Western ideas (liberalism, Kant, Habermas and marxism) on the protest movements in Iran.

Here are some excerpts from the interview:

"Thanks to the recent discovery and translations of the schools of liberal thought dominant in the Anglo-American world, as found in the works of Isaiah Berlin, John Rawls and Karl Popper, and an appreciation of older traditions of liberalism (Kantian, Millian or Lockean), a new trend of liberalism has taken shape among the younger generation of Iranian intellectuals."

"Habermas’s visit to Iran [in 2002] was a huge success. He was treated in Iran the way Bollywood actors are treated in India. Wherever he went or lectured, he was encircled by hundreds of young students and curious observers. This same phenomenon happened again when Richard Rorty visited Iran in 2004: around 1,500 souls came to his lecture on “Democracy and Non-Foundationalism” at the House of Artists in Tehran. Habermas’s visit to Iran was an important event in the process of democratic thinking and dialogue among cultures. (.....) Today in Iran philosophy represents a window on Western culture, on an open society and on the idea of democracy. This is the reason why Habermas, Rorty, Ricoeur, Berlin and many others are relevant in Iran. Most of the intellectuals in Iran today are struggling against different forms of fundamentalism, fanaticism and orthodoxy. Habermas is considered the inheritor of the Frankfurt School’s intellectual tradition that from the very beginning questioned all orthodoxies and authoritarianisms."

"I teach Hegel in Iran and I have made great use of Habermas’s work in my Hegel scholarship. I think Habermas’s reading of Hegel reinforces his approach to the philosophy of history, but it also consolidates his defense of the Enlightenment project as modernity’s self-understanding. This goes hand in hand with Habermas’s reading of Kant. (.....) As you might know, Kant is a very popular philosopher in Iran and there were several celebrations in Tehran for the 200th anniversary of his death in 2004. Well, once again as for Hegel, Habermas’s recasting of the Kantian principle of autonomy and its political implications shows how public reason lies at the heart of democratizing processes and is decisive to the survival of non-authoritarian political, social, and economic institutions in our world. And you can see how Kant — and Habermas’s reading of Kant — can be helpful in reformulating and re-elaborating a new democratic thinking in Iran."

"Thinking democracy and establishing democratic governance in a country like Iran is not an easy task. Unlike what people think, it is more than a simple political enterprise. The challenge here is to focus on the process of democratic consciousness-building which can provide continuity to the political structures of democracy by way of contrast with our authoritarian traditions. This is where philosophical thinking comes to our aid as a grammar of resistance to the tyranny of tradition. This does not mean that I consider the tremendous body of traditions in Iran as mere errors of the past. It means that our political and social traditions are acceptable as long as they enable us to think freely. We may find ourselves at home in our traditions, after all. But we need to distinguish between a false sense of belonging and respect for a common space where the plurality of voices can be realized."

Jahanbegloo is educated at Sorbonne University and Harvard University. He became head of a philosophy department in Tehran, where he started a dialogue with many Western intellectuals and invited Jürgen Habermas and Richard Rorty to Tehran. He was arrested by the Iranian authorities in 2006. Jürgen Habermas and many other intellectuals signed a petition for his release (see here). Jahanbegloo is now associate professor at University of Toronto.

Dahrendorf worked as a researcher under the philosopher Karl Popper at the London School of Economics (LSE) in the early 1950s. He became professor of sociology in Germany, and later member of the West German parliament for the Free Democrats in 1969-70. He was director at LSE between 1974 and 1984 and later a governor in 1986. Dahrendorf was warden at St Antony's College at the University of Oxford between 1987 and 1997. He has written numerous books on freedom and liberalism. He adopted British citizenship in 1988 and sat in the House of Lords as a cross-bencher. Dahrendorf suffered from cancer.

Jürgen Habermas, who has known Dahrendorf since the 1950s, received the news of Dahrendorf's death on his own 80th bithday. To "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" (June 19, 2009) Habermas states:

Friday, June 19, 2009

German Vice-Chancellor and foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD) congratulated celebrated philosopher Juergen Habermas on his 80th birthday, lauding him as the "European voice of reason."

In a letter to Habermas, Steinmeier wrote: "Without you, the thought and political action for a social and democratic Europe would not be possible."

"Your suggestions and advice have enduringly influenced my political thoughts and actions," Steinmeier said, thanking Habermas specifically for a discussion on Germany's European Union (EU) presidency in 2007.

Steinmeier further thanked Habermas for his "position and arguments on the question of the Iraq war."

Jürgen Habermas's discussion with Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Europe is published in Habermas/Steinmeier/Nida-Rümelin - "European Prospects/Europäische Perspektiven" (Klartext Verlag, 2008). Picture from the discussion in November 2007:

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Self-Subversive Justice [free]From "Modern Law Review", vol. 72 no. 1 (2009), pp. 1-23From the abstract: Dominated by social and legal philosophers, the present debate on justice oscillates between the poles of universality (Rawls, Habermas) and alterity (Levinas, Derrida). The article contrasts them with a third position, a sociological theory of justice in which justice appears as the 'contingency formula' of law (Luhmann). Here, the question of justice is no longer primarily a problem for philosophy but for concrete social practices in the changing self-descriptions of law. This opens perspectives for historical analyses to investigate into affinities of varieties of justice with changing social structures. More important is its potential to reformulate the concept of justice under present conditions which could give directives for legal theory and practice.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Description"The future of Europe and the role it will play in the 21st century are among the most important political questions of our time. The optimism of a decade ago has now faded but the stakes are higher than ever. The way these questions are answered will have enormous implications not only for all Europeans but also for the citizens of Europe's closest and oldest ally - the USA.In this new book, one of Europe's leading intellectuals examines the political alternatives facing Europe today and outlines a course of action for the future. Habermas advocates a policy of gradual integration of Europe in which key decisions about Europe's future are put in the hands of its peoples, and a 'bipolar commonality' of the West in which a more unified Europe is able to work closely with the United States to build a more stable and equitable international order.This book includes Habermas's portraits of three long-time philosophical companions, Richard Rorty, Jacques Derrida and Ronald Dworkin. It also includes several important new texts by Habermas on the impact of the media on the public sphere, on the enduring importance religion in "post-secular" societies, and on the design of a democratic constitutional order for the emergent world society."

Contents

Portraits1. "...And to define America, her athletic Democracy." In Memory of Richard Rorty (2007)2. How to Answer the Ethical Question: Derrida and Religion (2003)3. Ronald Dworkin - A Maverick among Legal Scholars (2006)

Europe, Europe4. An Avantgardistic Intuition for Relevances: The Role of the Intellectual and European Question (2006)5. What is Meant by a "Post-secular Society"? A Discussion on Islam in Europe (2008)6. European Politics at an Impasse: A Plea for a Policy of Graduated Integration (2007)7. The Constitutionalization of International Law and the Problems of Legitimating a Constitution for World Society (2008)

On Reason in the Public Sphere8. Media, Markets and Consumers: The Quality Press as the Backbone of the Public Sphere (2007)9. Political Communication in Media Society - Does Democracy still have an epistemic Dimension? The Impact of Normative Theory on Empirical Research (2006)

From the review:"Habermas's central aim in this collection of essays is to articulate the appropriate relation between "postmetaphysical thinking" and science and religion. He takes up issues related to both the philosophical and the public use of reason, and makes interesting proposals regarding their interrelation. Habermas is clearly worried about the spread of naturalistic worldviews ("scientism") and religious fundamentalism, but he dismisses neither naturalism nor religion. Rather, he defends what he calls "soft naturalism," which embraces a non-reductionist account of human language and thought in which normativity and intersubjectivity are central. Regarding religion, Habermas maintains that philosophy has long been enriched by secular "translations" of religious ideas."

"On the ethics of citizenship, Habermas forges a middle path between Rawls and his critics (e.g., Nicholas Wolterstorff and Paul Weithman), agreeing with Rawls that a secular state requires an "institutional filter" that prevents religious reasons from entering into formal justifications of laws and court decisions, but agreeing with Rawls's critics that citizens within the informal public sphere should be allowed to use religious language without restriction. Translating religious arguments into secular terms is still required at some point in order for them to potentially pass through the institutional filter, but this burden does not rest solely on religious citizens."

On the question of restrictions on public reasons, Jeffrey Flynn comments on Chistina Lafont's critique of Habermas. See also Christina Lafont's "Religious Citizens and Public Reasons" from the blog "The Immanent Flame".

See also John Haldane's (University of St. Andrews) review of Habermas's book in "Times Higher Education" (September 11, 2008).

The titel of the exhibition is taken from an essay Habermas wrote in 2003 about his arrival at Frankfurt University in 1956, and his time in Frankfurt as a research assistant for Theodor W. Adorno. Here he characterized the university as a place, where ”the lava of thought was moving.”

Monday, June 08, 2009

A serious misquote is circulating on the internet about Jürgen Habermas and Christianity. On a very large number of web sites you can read the following "quotation" of Jürgen Habermas:

"Christianity, and nothing else, is the ultimate foundation of liberty, conscience, human rights, and democracy, the benchmarks of western civilization. To this day, we have no other options [to Christianity]. We continue to nourish ourselves from this source. Everything else is postmodern chatter."The "quotation" has appeared in a number of books (see below), in Wall Street Journal ("In Europe, God Is (Not) Dead") and in Christian Science Monitor ("Germans reconsider religion"), and you can find it on a large number of blogs in America on Christianity.But this is a misquotation! The right quotation is this:"Universalistic egalitarianism, from which sprang the ideals of freedom and a collective life in solidarity, the autonomous conduct of life and emancipation, the individual morality of conscience, human rights and democracy, is the direct legacy of the Judaic ethic of justice and the Christian ethic of love. This legacy, substantially unchanged, has been the object of continual critical appropriation and reinterpretation. To this day, there is no alternative to it. And in light of the current challenges of a postnational constellation, we continue to draw on the substance of this heritage. Everything else is just idle postmodern talk." (Jürgen Habermas - "Time of Transitions", Polity Press, 2006, pp. 150-151, translation of an interview from 1999).

The misquote rewrites Habermas's statement and changes its meaning:

(1) Habermas talks about the historical origin of universalistic egalitarianism - not the foundation of human rights today.

(2) Habermas mentions both Judaism and Christianity - not only Christianity.

(3) Habermas says that there is no alternative to this legacy ("Erbe" in German) - not that we have no alternative to Christianity.

For a detailed comment on the misquote and its history on the internet see my contribution here.

Update (October 2015):

The misquote now also appears in the English entry on Jürgen Habermas on Wikipedia. An ignorant editor has refused to correct the misquote several times.

Here is a list of some of the books, in which the misquote appears. They are all referring to Habermas, but they have not checked the text, but based their "quotation" on secondary literature. This is an example of bad scholarship.

Abstract:"This article examines two recent alternatives to the traditional conception of human rights as natural rights: the account of human rights found in discourse ethics and the ‘political conception’ of human rights influenced by the work of Rawls. I argue that both accounts have distinct merits and that they are not as opposed to one another as is sometimes supposed. At the same time, the discourse ethics account must confront a deep ambiguity in its own approach: are rights derived in a strong sense from the conditions of ‘communicative freedom’ or are they developed from the participants’ own reflection upon their ongoing and continuously changing practices and institutions? The political conception recently proposed by Joshua Cohen can, I argue, contribute to the resolution of this ambiguity, though not without some modifications of its own."

The Habermasian perspective is represented by Seyla Benhabib and Rainer Forst. The Rawlsian approach is - besides John Rawls - represented by Michael Ignatieff, Thomas Pogge, and Joshua Cohen.